Best of 2015

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Life got in the way as 2015 drew to a close, hence the late posting of my 2015 review. It was a long and demanding year on all fronts, but ultimately the most rewarding 12 months of my life. I learnt more about perspective and what’s really important to me. I learnt shooting 3 full weddings consecutively is a bad idea. I learnt that I don’t want to ever stop making images that matter. I probably learnt some other stuff too.

The image selection for this blog has been sitting here for a week, waiting for me to write something. I attended the incredible Mystic Seminar photography conference during those 7 days, so with everything I learnt competing for limited space under my skull, I almost feel like I need to start again. It was without doubt a transformative week for me and has me focused on what’s ahead. Looking back almost seems pointless as I’m left utterly inspired and dreaming of what I’m going to witness and create in 2016 and beyond. That being said, I need to take stock and recognize what we all achieved in 2015. I say ‘we’ as images taken by my wife and others who shot with me during the year (Doogie, Hanna, Steve and Alex) are included below and they all helped to make it the successful year that it was.

2015 saw me win another Fearless Award. Junebug Weddings invited me to join their Worlds’ Best Wedding Photographers list and awarded me an honorable mention in the 2015 Best of the Best Destination Collection. They also published some stuff. We also won the Knot.com Best Of Wedding Award for the 2nd year running. Our clients are consistently happy with their experience working with Clarkie Photography and that means the world to me. We also made the Los Angeles Top 10 list according to Zankyou Weddings, totally arbitrary but appreciated nonetheless.

In 2016 I get to photograph wonderful couples all over LA and well beyond. Alaska will make another appearance, as too will the mundane scenery of Yosemite National Park. I’ll find myself up near Lake Tahoe, down in San Diego (a few times) and over in the UK for much of August. For now though, this was 2015 and some of the moments that mattered, and some which don’t.

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